The Wishing Star by Marian Wells

Author:Marian Wells
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441262486
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2013-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

“Luna, every woman’s friend

To me thy goodness condescend.

Let this night in visions see

Emblems of my destiny.”

Jenny felt better after her rest and went downstairs to her tasks with a lighter heart.

As summer gained momentum, life pressed hard against her. Mrs. Barton wasn’t a difficult person to please, but it was a busy household.

One day Mrs. Barton looked at Jenny’s tired face and said, “I must find another girl. You’re doing the work of two right now, and there’s school soon.”

So at harvest time Clara joined the household. Clara was short and plump, with a frizzle of light hair. Her blue eyes, Jenny immediately noticed, were prone to disappear completely when she laughed, and that was often. Too often, Jenny thought as she moved behind Clara, catching broken pieces, and rescuing abandoned tasks.

Soon Jenny was as frayed as Clara’s hair. If it hadn’t been for the book, Jenny realized later, her nerves would have been as fragmented as Mrs. Barton’s berry bowl when Clara tried to wash it.

During the hot, heavy days of August, Mark came calling. Mrs. Barton called it “courting,” and she said it with a gentle smile. But whatever it was, Jenny was glad to see him.

They sat on the side porch, shaded by vines that wandered up the lattice to the second story, and Mark filled her full of his tales of the law office. Later as she slowly climbed the stairs to her room, she mulled over the meaning of his visit, and frowned over the memory of the look in his eyes and the way he had pressed her hand.

She lingered on the stairs trying to understand her emotions. Were the mingled memories of the past responsible for the discontent she felt around him? Fleetingly, she wondered what he would think about the green book and the growing need she was feeling in her life.

The moment before she touched her door, she saw the slit of light. “Clara!” she exclaimed, then saw the book she held. “Oh!”

Closing the book, Clara laughed merrily. “Your face! Jenny, don’t look so frightened. I won’t tell our good Presbyterian lady, and I won’t be corrupted. You see, I know all about it.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Perhaps I’m sent to help you understand even better.”

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